Reddit rules! Characterizing an ecosystem of governance

Abstract

The social sharing and news aggregation site Reddit provides a unique example o f an ecosystem o f community-created rules. Not only do individual subreddits create and enforce their own regulations, but site-wide guidelines and norms may also influence behavior. This paper reports on a mixed-methods study o f 100,000 subreddits and their rules. Our findings characterize the types of rules across Reddit, the frequency o f rules at scale, and patterns o f rules based on subreddit characteristics. We find that rules appear to be con¬ text-dependent for individual subreddits but also share com¬ mon characteristics across the site. Taken together, our find¬ ings provide a rich description of this ecosystem of rules, motivating further inquiry into underlying mechanisms for rule formation and enforcement in online communities.